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Little concern over slow AIDS drug roll out

    JOHANNESBURG

    Health officials at South Africa's Johannesburg General Hospital are hoping that the recently launched rollout of free anti-AIDS drugs will gain momentum by "word of mouth".

    So far, antiretrovirals have been prescribed to only around 200 people since the long-awaited rollout began at five state hospitals in Gauteng Province on 1 April.

    South Africa has the highest number of HIV-positive people in the world, and an estimated 40 percent of all adult deaths in 2000 were ascribed to AIDS-related causes.

    However, doctors and health officials are not concerned about the quiet start to the rollout.

    Francois Venter, a consultant at the Johannesburg Hospital AIDS clinic, was quoted by a local newspaper, The Sunday Independent, as saying: "It's not the insanity we were [expecting]. Many other African countries have seen a very slow start, and then, through word of mouth, it picks up. We are banking on that happening."

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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